Archive for the ‘Nissan Titan’ Category

Stars Wars: The Last Jedi is hitting theaters next week, and like in year’s past, Nissan is hitching its wagon on the monolithic movie franchise. We saw the fruits of that partnership last year with the launch of the Nissan Rogue One Edition. This year, Nissan and LucasFilms are upping the ante by launching a whole fleet of Stars Wars-inspired creations, including the vehicle you see here.

This is a Nissan Titan, or at least it was until it was redesigned to look more like one of those giant AT-M6 Walker bots that the First Order deployed against the Resistance in The Force Awakens. The overall look and the details that went into creating the Titan Star Wars is a feast for the senses. We should give credit to Vehicle Effects for making this transformation. The California-based company is famous in Hollywood circles for building some of the best cars to hit the silver screen, including all the vehicles in The Fast and Furious and Marvel Cinematic Universe franchises. In addition to the Titan, Vehicle Effects also created the Nissan Altima Special Forces TIE Fighter, Nissan Maxima Kylo Ren, Nissan Maxima Kylo Ren’s TIE Silencer, Nissan Maxima Captain Phasma, Nissan Rogue Poe Dameron’s X-Wing with BB8, and Nissan Rogue Sport A-Wing.

Continue after the jump to read more about the Nissan Star Wars Edition

What makes the Nissan Titan Star Wars special

“The finished product looks incredible, particularly in the way some of its features are in sync with the actual parts from the AT-M6”

With respect to the other Star Wars-inspired Nissan vehicles, the Titan AT-M6 is, without question, the most elaborate creation of the fleet. According to Eric Shimp of Vehicle Effects, most of the materials that were used in this build are made from aluminum. There are also 3D-printed parts, most notably the circuit panels that we can see on the sides of the truck.

The finished product looks incredible, particularly in the way some of its features are in sync with the actual parts from the AT-M6. The hood of the truck features the top end of the walker’s head, right down to the red highlights that represent the windows of the walker. The front bumper of the Titan also gets a pair of proper blasters. Both are flanked by smaller protrusions that resemble the array of artillery that the actual AT-M6 has at its disposal. The rest of the pick-up gets wrapped in the same colors as the AT-M6, complete with black definitions that represent the natural wear-and-tear these walkers get when they’re on the battlefield.

“The rest of the pick-up gets wrapped in the same colors as the AT-M6, complete with black definitions”

The other significant feature of the Titan AT-M6 is sitting at the back, prominently placed for the whole world to see. For those who don’t know, that part there is the body of the AT-M6, and that satellite dish-looking equipment is actually the megacaliber six cannon from which it gets its name.

As elaborate as the exterior is, the Titan’s interior remains largely in stock form. The only modification in this section is the sound equipment that was installed to help recreate the effects of a stomping AT-M6 Walker. Imagine driving in your neighborhood and seeing this in your rear-view mirror. It’s a cool sight, but also not a pleasant one.

No work was done to improve the Titan’s performance capabilities. I don’t see that as an issue though because if you watched The Force Awakens, you’ll know that these AT-M6 Walkers aren’t exactly known for being fleet-footed. The absence of any power upgrades isn’t a reflection of the kind of work that Vehicle Effects put into this build. In fact, the finished vehicle reportedly weighs around 6,500 pounds. That’s 1,500 pounds in added weight to a pickup that already weighs a little over 5,000 pounds, to begin with.

“The finished vehicle reportedly weighs around 6,500 pounds”

Don’t expect the Nissan Titan AT-M6 to somehow find itself in the classifieds anytime soon. Like the rest of the The Last Jedi-inspired Nissan models, this creation will be making the rounds of other auto shows through the first quarter of 2018. Even if the movie itself runs its course at that time, there’s no doubt that these cars will still be major attractions.

It looks like Nissan snuck a cosmetic change onto the 2018 Titan half-ton pickup without anybody noticing – even two months after the automaker released photos of the 2018 Titan Midnight Edition. Gone is the large fender badge that denoted the V-8 engine was under the hood. The badge was styled like a heat vent designed to keep engine bay temperatures down but offered no such functionality.

So, how did the change get noticed?

Well, it was a commenter who noticed the missing badge on Nissan’s new No Lazy Horses commercial – at least that’s the first mention I had seen. Digging deeper shows Nissan made zero mention of the missing badge in its press release on the 2018 Titan Midnight Edition back in August, nor has Nissan released info on changes for the standard 2018 Titan. Reading the commercial’s on-screen fine print does confirm the truck is a 2018 half-ton model. How about that?

The heavier-duty Titan XD will keep the fender badge, however, since it has two engine options – the 5.6-liter V-8 and the 5.0-liter Cummins V-8 turbodiesel. Originally, the half-ton Titan was slated to get a V-6 as standard equipment soon after it launched, making the fender badge necessary for distinguishing between the engine choices. That begs the question: does the missing fender badge mean the Titan isn’t getting a V-6 option?

On the other hand, you’ll notice the door badge now reads “Titan V8” on the No Lazy Horses truck. That’s new. The 2017 Titan doors didn’t have the V8 designation and only said “Titan.” Maybe this is Nissan’s way of better separating the Titan from the Titan XD? I’ve reached out to Nissan and will update this story if I hear back.

What do you think? Does this mean Nissan killed the V-6 development? Did you notice the badge was missing before I did? Let me know in the comments below.

Nissan is fighting tooth and nail to gain ground in the highly competitive half-ton pickup market. Sales have been slower than expected, but that might change with this commercial. It’s about the funniest truck commercial we’ve seen in a while – mostly because truck ads usually take a more serious approach. It’s called No Lazy Horses and it’s Super Bowl-quality funny thanks to a catchy song, a memorably pudgy main character, and some antagonizing lazy “horses” that are impossible to unsee.

Besides being funny, the one-minute, 30-second commercial takes a hard swing at the Ford F-150. Of course, the truck’s badges are removed, but anybody with any sense knows the white, Crew Cab truck is a Ford. Truck fans will easily place it as the previous-generation, steel-bodied F-150.

As the story goes, the F-150 gets stuck in the mud and its driver, Clark, must coax the truck’s “horses” to perform by doing an embarrassing song and dance routine. Pretty pretty ponies, pretty pretty please, I’m a dancing ponyboy, begging pretty please Well, unfortunately for Clark’s pride, the hero pulls up to witness the scene in his shiny new, 2018 Nissan Titan Crew Cab 4×4. The hero, Clark’s payload of pipes, and what’s left of Clark’s dignity ride off into the sunset, abandoning the F-150 to rot away.

Despite horsepower not having anything to do with a 2WD truck being buried axle-deep in mud, the commercial is incredibly memorable and should even resonate with people who know nothing about truck, payload, or lazy horses. That stupid song is a verifiable earworm, and those trashy, basement-dwelling horses are the stuff of Internet legends.

Due to popular demand Nissan expands the Midnight Edition treatment to their pickup models as well. The new Nissan Titan and Frontier Midnight Edition come with a package that adds many cool black stuff to the exterior.

Nissan is playing off the massive hype surrounding the total solar eclipse by introducing three new Midnight Edition trucks for 2018: the Titan,Titan XD, and Frontier. Not surprisingly, the trucks are blacked out from hood to hitch with black interiors and several popular add-on features included. Not only does this tie in perfectly with today’s celestial event, it complements Nissan’s huge success with the Midnight Edition treatment on its other vehicles, which are said to sell twice as quick as standard models.

Billy Hayes, Nissan’s division vice president for North America sales, said, “Following the tremendous response to the original Maxima SR Midnight Edition, we’ve created a complete portfolio of the popular blacked-out Midnight Edition look among our core Nissan sedan,crossover and SUV models. We expect the strong customer appeal to continue with the expansion of the Midnight Edition package to our Titan, Titan XD and Frontier pickups.” Nissan isn’t the only automaker doing well with special edition models boosting sales. Chevrolet is killing it with special editions like the Redline,Rally,High Desert,Custom Sport HD,RealTree,Special Ops,Alaskan, and Black Out editions. Oh, and Chevy also has its own Midnight Edition with a blacked-out appearance, too. Ram also plays the game, offering its Ram pickups with the Limited Tungsten, Subline Green, Copper,Night,Rebel Black, and Rebel Mojave Sand editions. Hayes followed up by saying, “A great custom look straight from the factory is what buyers really appreciate. We’re finding that buyers in the millennial age group especially are attracted to the Midnight Editions. Last year, Nissan was ranked as the number one brand for millennial purchases.”

Speaking of purchases, the Titan, Titan XD, and Frontier Midnight Editions will go on sale starting in the late fall of 2017. Pricing has yet to be announced. For the full details on the trucks, keep reading below.

The gates are open at the 2016 Chicago Auto Show, and with those pesky journalists finally out of the way, the public can now enjoy all the vehicular goodness that North America’s “largest” auto show can muster. Special editions, refreshes, and brand-new models all dropped cover this year, with crossovers and SUVs served up as the main course, and new sedans and sports cars added as a tasty side dish. Picking winners and losers here is not exactly easy, but hey, this isn’t some elementary school talent show. Time to be ruthless.

There were a few clear standouts for Best In Show right from the start, but cutthroat competition to fill the remaining slots quickly followed. Picking vehicles for Worst In Show was also pretty tricky, but that’s why they pay me the big bucks.

Nissan couldn’t just sit back and watch Ford run away with all pickup truck customers with their new SuperCrew Raptor. They are trying to lure some of them to their booth with something cool and promising with this, the magnificent Nissan TITAN Warrior Concept.

The concept truck is obviously designed to appeal to the eight-year old inside every man, and it does a bloody good job of it. You look at those looks – which Nissan describes with words like unapologetic, aggressive, athletic – and you want that thing in your life. And that is before you know about the thing’s capabilities.

Nissan TITAN Warrior features a Cummins 5.0L V8 Turbo Diesel engine mated to a heavy-duty 6-speed Aisin automatic transmission, sending 390 horsepower and 401 lb-ft of torque to all four wheels. The truck also has full custom suspension for unrivaled off-road prowess and a custom interior with features like carbon-colored high-strength seat fabric trimmed with “Magma” orange accents and polished chrome finishes to make you feel invincible.

“Nissan has always pushed the boundaries of traditional automotive design and engineering, from our Nissan GT-R supercar to the new TITAN XD,” explained Muñoz. “We do this with a clear conviction that there are buyers out there who appreciate something everyone else does not have. A ‘work hard, play harder, get bigger’ TITAN XD certainly does the job.”

Nissan announced the official pricing for the latest modelyear Pathfinder SUV and Titan pickup truck in the American market. Based on this information, the 2016 Nissan Pathfinder starts at $29,780, while the Titan kicks things off at $40,290.

Powered by a 260-horsepower 3.5-liter DOHC V6 engine mated to an advanced Xtronic transmission with D-Step shift logic, the base 2016 Nissan Pathfinder is a good choice for a college student or someone who doesn’t need four-wheel-drive. A fully loaded Platinum 4WD version of this car can set you back $43,250.

The new features of the 2016 Nissan Pathfinder include revised Almond interior with contrasting black and beige materials and Cold Package with heated cloth front seats, heated steering wheel and heated outside rearview mirrors with heated steering wheel on SL and Premium models.

The 2016 Nissan Titan is a car the Japanese car maker is particularly proud of. They have pitched it as more than a match for the popular American offerings in this segment, which explains the relatively high price tag it is sporting. An XD Platinum Reserve Crew Cab 4×4 Titan costs a whopping $60,520.

You can have the Titan in 4×2 and 4×4 formats and with Crew Cab or Reserve Crew Cab, and five trim grades, all powered by the same Cummins 5.0L V8 Turbo Diesel engine developing 555 lb-ft of torque. The truck can be specified with advanced options such as Around View Monitor and integrated gooseneck trailer hitch.

Cummins has been building diesel engines since 1919, but it would be another 80 years before this company became a household name. That was when Cummins supplied Chrysler with a 160-horsepower 5.9-liter inline-six for the 1989 Dodge Ram 250 and 350 models, and Cummins has steadily built a solid reputation for its engines among truck buyers ever since.

Dodge Ram (and now Ram) buyers wear the big “C” on their fenders with pride, but Nissan buyers will soon be able to brag about their Cummins affiliation as well. A new era of diesel trucks is set to begin when the 2016 Nissan Titan XD goes on sale later this year with the Cummins 5.0-liter V-8 Turbo Diesel under the hood, and I recently had the chance to head to the home of Cummins – Columbus, Indiana – to see where this all-new engine will be built.

Nissan has released the latest episode of its Titan “Truckumentary.” This episode is all about that diesel goodness – or as Nissan engineers define it – that power, the push in the seat, that constant pull that’s not found anywhere else beside in a diesel truck.

Nissan’s ongoing documentary series humorously called “Titan Truckumentary” has been chronicling the upcoming 2016 Titan’s development from sketches on paper to testing early build models in a lab. Now the automaker’s latest installment of the self-produced series follows quality control engineers as they subject the new truck to sub-freezing temperatures in Fairbanks, Alaska and the surrounding areas.

Ahead of the official launch of the 2016 Nissan Titan, the automaker is revealing some of the truck’s backstory with a video series titled “Titan Truckumentary.” After first highlighting Nissan’s history as a truckmaker, the series then gave some background about the truck’s chief product specialist and the design process of the 2016 Titan, and the fourth installment of the series shows some of the more rigorous development that went into creating the new truck.

Nissan has a lot to prove when it comes to competing in the full-size truck market against the Ford F-150,Chevrolet Silverado and the Toyota Tundra. The latest video focuses on how the 2016 Nissan Titan was torture-tested to ensure that it would live up to the harsh conditions that will it will encounter in the hands of buyers. Nissan engineers tried to replicate every imaginable driving situation the Titan will encounter, including driving along washboard and cobblestone roads, which is done both in controlled test tracks as well as live simulators.

These tests are very similar to what most new cars are put through, but Nissan went a step further, looking at some of the more challenging driving scenarios pickup trucks must survive, including driving over curbs, driving through deep, standing water and severe chassis and suspension flex.

Nissan had been preparing for this event for quite some time. You may remember the automaker’s Project Titan that used votes on Facebook to build the ultimate adventure rig. The idea was to have two U.S. military veterans and alumni of the Wounded Warrior project complete a weeklong expedition through some of Alaska’s harshest wilderness. Their mission was to complete several tasks for other veteran-centered businesses and programs.

The 21-minute short film not only follows veterans David Guzman and Kevin McMahon on their journey through the stunning Alaskan territory, but also through their traumatic past events in the line of duty. With Guzman suffering from a severe leg injury and McMahon battling PTSD, the two were well aware before starting this mission what its deeper meaning was — bringing awareness to and support for fellow vets who came home changed from war.

Their missions included bringing new outboard boat engines to a fellow vet who runs a fishing business especially for disabled veterans. Another was hauling firewood and a hog for roasting to a group of volunteers and veterans helping clear land for the local Elks Club. Mostly the trip was about honoring those service members currently deployed, those back home, and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Follow along as the pair take the modified 2014 Nissan Titan through some of the most bone-chilling terrain south of the Arctic Circle.

Remember the modified Titan pickupNissan built using crowd sourcing in its Facebook page? If not, it centered around rising support and awareness for the Wounded Warrior project by putting two Wounded Warrior alumni veterans in the Titan and sending them on a weeklong adventure through the Alaskan wilderness while a film crew followed closely behind.

Well, the time has come for Nissan to reveal the completed project.

This video teaser shows a few snippets from the video series set to release this Veterans Day happening November 11th. The series can be viewed though Hulu, XBOX Live, and the History2 Channel.

The truck itself features a host of upgrades including a lift kit, 35-inch-tall Nitto Trail Grappler tires, an ARB front bumper, A bed topper with roof rack, and a compact off-road camping trailer wrapped in the same desert camo as the Titan. A Lowrance GPS system and a pair of Wounded Warrior-stitched seat covers help dress up the interior. A small list of changes on the engine including a cold-air intake and a reprogrammed ECU make some extra power for tackling the challenging Alaskan terrain.